CREST HAVEN – Cape May County’s Office of Emergency Management Coordinator Martin Pagliughi was reappointed for a three-year term by the County Board of Commissioners July 13. His new term will end July 8, 2024.
Pagliughi is also the long-serving mayor of Avalon.
Homelessness Trust Fund
The board approved spending $73,265 from the Homelessness Trust Fund. According to Commissioner Jeffrey Pierson, who oversees Human Services, there were three applications for funds.
On the Homelessness Trust Fund Advisory Board’s recommendation, two families were approved for housing, and a third is being held for background checks.
“That will take two families off the streets and put them into approved housing,” said Pierson. “We finally got this Homelessness Trust Fund going in Cape May County, and it’s going to be a benefit,” he added.
Revised Bond Ordinance
The $24-million bond ordinance for capital improvements (https://bit.ly/3rbESsQ), approved in June, to erect a government services building at the County Airport, in Erma, and other projects, “died for lack of action, as if it never existed,” acting Administrator Kevin Lare said.
The bond ordinance was introduced July 13, with the same number (1-21), but for $34 million. The extra $10 million will be for the government services building. The facility, which will house several county departments, has an appropriation of $22.7 million.
Lare explained in an email that the first reading (in June) only included the first phase of that project.
After further discussion, the board decided to fund the entire project, “as the consultants (bond counsel) believe it will drive the bid price down rather than bidding the project as Phase 1 and then Phase 2,” Lare continued.
Other facets of the original bond remain unchanged. They will fund improvements at the County Commons, formerly the Kmart, in Rio Grande, ($4.2 million); redevelopment initiatives ($6 million), and miscellaneous improvements countywide ($1.1 million).
The new bond ordinance will have a public hearing July 27, at 4:30 p.m., in the Commissioners Meeting Room, 4 Moore Rd., Court House.
